The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city

Abstract

This debates piece reflects on the influence of the post-political critique on urban studies. In this literature (e.g. Swyngedouw 2014) the default position of contemporary democracies is post-politics -the truly political is only rare, random and radical. The 'post-political trap', refers to the intuitively convincing, yet ultimately confining account it provides of contemporary urban governance. We identify three shortcomings. First, the binary understanding of the real political/politics as police negates the in-betweeness and contingency of actual existing urban politics. By so doing, secondly, political agency is reduced to the heroic and anti-heroic. Thus, the plurality of political agency in the urban sphere and multi-faceted forms of power lose their political quality. Third, the perceived omnipotence of the post-political order actually diminishes the possibilities of the urban as a political space of resistance and emancipation. On these grounds we argue not for a rejection of the notion of the post-political per se but a more differentiated approach, one more alert to the contingencies of the political and depoliticization in the urban realm.

The post-political nature of marine spatial planning and modalities for its re-politicisation

“…Although the symptoms of the post-political condition are interrelated and difficult to address individually, we do not see the post-political condition as omnipotent or inescapable (Beveridge & Koch, 2017) nor the public as incapable of (re)shaping planning processes.…”

“…For example, even its staunchest critics concede that the post-political lens helps to explain why "the near-universal acceptance of participatory planning" appears to make such little difference (Mitchell, Attoh, & Staeheli, 2015, p. 2636. Beveridge and Koch (2017), argue that post-political theorists have over-simplified agency. They argue that the postpolitical condition suggests planning is dominated by an omnipresent and omnipotent ordering that, if true, would mean that change was impossible (Beveridge & Koch, 2017).…”

“…Beveridge and Koch (2017), argue that post-political theorists have over-simplified agency. They argue that the postpolitical condition suggests planning is dominated by an omnipresent and omnipotent ordering that, if true, would mean that change was impossible (Beveridge & Koch, 2017). We argue that dominated or exploited stakeholders are producers of their situational context, with capacity to develop countermeasures to the post-political condition.…”

The (Ontological) Politics in Depoliticisation Debates: Three Lenses on the Decline of the Political

“…The multiplicity of political agency is, a priori, eliminated; 'real' political agency is confined to the contestation of institutional politics/police (Darling, 2014: 74-75). Furthermore, the apparent all-powerfulness of the post-political order diminishes the possibilities for the political to emerge (Beveridge and Koch, 2016).…”

Risky spaces: Creating, contesting and communicating lines on environmental hazard maps

“…Alternatively, localised protests may be tolerated and indeed encouraged by authorities, allowing them to demonstrate their reasonableness and responsiveness, provided the existing order of things is unthreatened (Swyngedouw, ). This argument, however, makes it hard for authorities to counter charges of being postpolitical, since they can be criticised both if they don't respond to protests and also if they do, which helps explain some discontent with aspects of postpolitical theory (Beveridge & Koch, ; Mitchell, Attoh, & Staehli, ; see also responses from Dikeç, ; Swyngedouw, ).…”